“Your apartment.”His grin turned boyish, and the weight of his observation hit me full force.He’d seen my plants and immediately connected the dots.There was a lot to unpack there and now wasn’t the time.I drew a deep breath of his masculine scent, a heady mix of cedar and bergamot and something undefinablyhim.
“I think we’re looking pretty convincing,” I said, propping my chin on his chest.
“Mmm.”Nash wore a lazy smile.Did it feel as good for him as it did for me?
“Wow.Do you two need to get a room already?”Archer’s voice interrupted our reverie.Nash stiffened, pulling away, and cold air whooshed between our bodies.
“We were just discussing some important things,” Nash said.
“Oh, I’m sure.”Archer didn’t sound convinced.“Listen, they’re rolling out the next round of small plates.Let’s get some food and get out of here.”
Nash cleared his throat, and I could feel whatever cozy intimacy we’d created fall away completely.It didn’t make sense, but something inside me began to despair.
I’d fallen in love with Nash Nightingale after just one night…and he was damn near close to making me fall again after one attempt to convince everyone we were a couple.
My head was spinning.
I was dressed up, had a voice in a respected space of policy change and thought leaders, and stood smiling up at a man who acted like he cared and noticed things about me.And that didn’t even take into account that I still used the memory of our one night together when I wanted to climax in a hurry.
“Come on.”Nash reached for my hand, inviting me to follow Archer alongside him.I grabbed his big, rough hand, trying my best to silence all those anxieties that had sprung to life.
I hadn’t realized before signing the contract how dangerous this could be.
Because here I was, with everything I’d ever wanted.
And next year, I’d have to walk away from it all.
CHAPTER NINE
NASH
The day after the Developers Summit, Archer and I shifted into hyperdrive.
I stared at the aerial photos spread across the conference table, showcasing the exact neighborhood of Queens that we were working in.Green represented our properties—as of now, just three.Cross properties took up a full quarter of the aerial view with his Meridian Manufacturing acquisition.Everything that was actively on the market was in yellow.But that left tons of properties—and families, livelihoods, futures—hanging in the balance.
The bastard knew what we were doing already.And while we were moving quickly, he’d been two steps ahead the entire time.
“We need to acquire more, immediately,” Archer said grimly, pointing to the street on the north side of Meridian.“We’re focusing on everything adjacent to his property just to be a thorn in his side, but we haven’t got anything up here yet.”
I scrolled through my phone, pausing on a folder of contacts I’d been gathering since our initial visit to Farwell.Archer and I specialized in networking.We could get any granny on our side, no matter what she’d heard about us before.Give us a family of hardworking immigrants, and they’d be putty in our hands within an hour.
It wasn’t hard for us because we were them, regular, working-class people.Sebastian had lobbed it at us like an insult, but he was right, even though I didn’t want him to be right about anything.We weren’t from his 1-percent world.
We were nothing like him.
And that’s why what we did was so important.The second we let off the gas, he and his ilk would take over.Mold this world into their own playground, the 99 percent be damned.On paper, it didn’t seem so dangerous.Until it kept happening, time and time again, and then one day, no lower- and middle-class New Yorkers would be left.Nobody would be able to buy a home for themselves, because greedy corporations like Cross Developments wanted not just their piece of the pie, but the entire fucking thing.
So when we’d gone to Farwell that day and purchased those buildings, we’d stopped into every bodega imaginable.We got the word on the street.We met with a few other property owners who were thinking of selling.We listened.We learned.We handed our number out like candy.
And now I had seven contacts in my phone who I could call for anything I needed.
I bet Sebastian fucking Cross hadn’t done that.
“We didn’t canvas on that side when we visited,” I murmured, cross-checking my contacts with the map on the table.“The location farthest north is this one”—I pointed to a mixed-use building where we’d met a deli owner who passed us the info for the landlord—“and that’s still about a quarter block away.”
Archer’s phone rang.It was Julia.He swiped to answer, putting it on speaker.
“Hey, Julia.Nash and I are here on speaker.”
